Mount Wachusett Community College (窪做惇蹋厙) will utilize the $73,903 Activation Fund grant from The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts at its Dental Clinic to enhance its sterilization center. This enhancement will allow 窪做惇蹋厙 to improve training for dental hygiene and dental assistant students in state-of-the art sterilization and infection control procedures and processes.
The grant will enable 窪做惇蹋厙s Dental Education program to expand its offerings into new certification and continuing education programming in the area of Infection Control and Safety in the Dental Setting. Additionally, the grant enables 窪做惇蹋厙 to host the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School Dental Assisting program students in the clinical setting.
Community Health Connections has partnered with 窪做惇蹋厙s Dental Education program since its inception, playing a key role in the programs founding in 2005 through its support of the Oral Health Initiative of North Central Massachusetts, a Round 1 Synergy Initiative project also funded through The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. The clinic is co-located with CHC Community Health Center on Nichols Road in Fitchburg, enabling students to learn alongside CHC dentists. Since the programs founding, 257 dental hygiene and assisting graduates have entered the dental workforce and over 9,000 patients have been served by students in 窪做惇蹋厙s Dental Education Clinic.
The partnership between 窪做惇蹋厙 and Community Health Connections has and will continue to have an impact on oral health in Central Massachusetts and across the Commonwealth, stated Cindy Cadoret, Director of Dental Education Programs at 窪做惇蹋厙.